Democrats quickly seized on a report Thursday that GOP Louisiana Sen. David Vitter's office paid for an embattled aide to attend legal hearings in Louisiana.

Rep. Charlie Melancon, Vitter’s likely Democratic opponent, released a Web video hours after the report was released, targeting the senator for footing the bill for trips made by his former legislative aide, Brent Furer, during which Furer appeared in court on drunk driving charges in the Bayou State.

The Baton Rouge Advocate reported Thursday that local court records show Furer appeared for a 2004 drunken driving arrest and related charges during two trips to Louisiana in October 2007 and August 2008. Official Senate records show that Vitter’s office paid for Furer’s trips to Louisiana during those time frames.

These are not Furer’s only brushes with the law, and Vitter has been criticized for keeping him on staff for two years after he was accused of assaulting his girlfriend and threatening to kill her. Furer eventually pleaded guilty to three lesser charges for the incident and resigned from Vitter’s office in June after media reports revealed those and other charges. Furer had previously been charged with cocaine possession and four DUI’s, and there is a warrant out for him in Louisiana.

A Vitter spokesman said that it is common for Vitter’s staff to travel to Louisiana and maintained that the senator was not aware of the drunken driving and drug charges until the media reported them in June. And in June, Vitter’s spokesman said that the office reprimanded Furer appropriately by suspending him.

However, this is not the first time Melancon has taken Vitter to task over Furer, whose employment has become a focal point in the Senate race. The congressman has already issued a television advertisement attacking Vitter for his record on women’s issues, offering as evidence the charges involving Furer and the senator’s admission that he committed a “serious sin” in conjunction with the so-called D.C. Madam’s prostitution circuit.

Nonetheless, Vitter leads Melancon in all public polls. The most recent Rasmussen Reports poll from late June shows Vitter leading Melancon 53 percent to 35 percent.